Sociological Reflections Research Articles

The problem of the handicapped between marginalisation and integration: sociological reflections on the subject

It is not difficult to note that in tandem with the refinement of collective awareness and consciousness, phenomena typical of our age, albeit one steeped in contradictions, the problem of the handicapped is gradually being re-proposed to public opinion from an exclusively biological-individual setting to a conspicuous opening up to the sphere of the social and public sphere.

IA Generativa nel welfare: un approccio basato sulla Sociologia Pubblica per una governance consapevole

This article explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on welfare policies, focusing on the unconventional case study of the Govern-AI project in Italy. Using the Extended Case Method, the study analyses the evolution of AI applications in public administration and their societal implications. The sociological reflection on AI emphasizes its transformative role in shaping social structures, considering both optimistic views on social rights enhancement and critical concerns such as privacy violations. The research advocates for a sociological understanding of AI as a non-human social actor, focusing on social practices and human-machine interactions. Additionally, the article introduces the concept of Public Policy Sociology for evaluating AI-related public policies, emphasizing transparency and citizen involvement.

Too little, too late? Sociological reflections on religious responses to climate crisis

AbstractAre religious communities better advantaged to mobilize for social change than other institutions and communities and other social spaces? If so, how might they do so? What unique resources can religious communities offer to this effort? Even if there is no set formula to generate climate engagement, are there conditions we can recommend? As one of the few social spaces that might systematically compel collective moral engagement, religious communities and organizations hold the potential to play a key role in societal response. Religious teachings, leaders, and communities have provided individuals the moral conviction to do what is right and the courage to act when one is afraid, and they have offered a microcosm of social networks and social norms that supported social engagement. Not only do religious communities provide a rare space for moral vision and call to action, but in many cases religious communities have in fact mobilized significant social movement responses on other issues at both individual and community levels. In this essay, I apply a theory of socially organized denial to specific questions about climate inertia within religious communities posed in this special issue. I also unpack the question of “too little, too late,” pointing to the benefits of a suspension of doubt and engaging in ethics of responsibility in the unfolding present.

Social dilemma of legal order (sociological reflections)

The article provides an explanation of the social dilemma of legal order. Its understanding includes two provisions that make up a contradictory unity: 1) the legal order in modern societies has no reasonable alternative; 2) the social dialectics of the legal order formation is variable. Historical situations showing the action of the dilemma in societies are considered. Concluding the article, the author concludes that the establishment of legal order in societies is a complex and contradictory process of their institutional reorganization.

When artistic is altruistic: the power of beauty from P. A. Sorokin's sociology to Building Beauty social project.

The article contributes to the ongoing debates on the social value and sociological relevance of the arts by examining the intuitions of the Russian-American sociologist P. A. Sorokin (1889-1968) on the concept of "beauty" as a force akin to what he calls "Altruistic Creative Love", both potentially catalysing a process of "fraternisation of humanity". Starting from the author's sociological reflections on the relationship between "Altruistic Love" and "beauty" and an analytical model of "altruistic artistic social action," the article proposes the analysis of a specific social project named Building Beauty, promoted in Turin (Italy) by universities, public bodies and the third sector, which aims to foster the social inclusion of homeless people through participatory processes, discovering expressions of beauty with aesthetic and sociological relevance simultaneously, able to move social transformations.

Towards a Hopeful University

Drawing on insights from sociology and psychology, this paper points at hope as one of the key personal and communal strengths that contemporary academia needs in order to make use of its potential and fulfil its unique mission. It also shows the connection between futures studies, sociological reflection on hope, and the sociological understanding of leadership. The difference between unwarranted optimism and hope is explained, and hope is presented as a deeply creative, active process involving thinking more than feeling. The author argues that modern universities pay too little attention to the positive aspects of life, and thus universities become paradoxically less capable of executing their mission: to be leaders of positive change in every dimension of life, to conduct free research and free debate in which every bit of truth is respected, and to form ethical, wise leaders. Sadly, some fields of knowledge, such as sociology, lack a sufficiently developed theoretical apparatus to confront the problem. This paper concludes with recommendations for Eastern European academia.

Источники надежды в меняющейся действительности (на материале романа Бориса Пастернака Доктор Живаго)

The article analyzes the sources of hope in the changing reality in Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago. The concept of changing reality is presented through the prism of Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological reflections. In Pasternak’s novel, the high concentration of events of the first part of the 20th century, filled with social upheavals and catastrophes, such as wars and revolutions, becomes part of the protagonist’s biography. The novel reveals the protagonist’s ability to find sources of hope in a hopeless environment. This ability strengths Yuri Zhivago and helps him to live and be engaged in creative activity in hard times. Yuri Andreevich finds salvation in everyday worries, which helps him to overcome chaos in post-revolutionary Moscow. Events filled with the warmth and comfort of everyday life acquire a special status. The next source of hope and inspiration in the book is a creative activity. An inexhaustible source of motivation in the novel is also nature, which is inextricably linked with the theme of creativity. For the protagonist, life is most fully revealed in compassion, active love, admiration for the world, and hope for the triumph of beauty and goodness.

Family as a System in Crisis in Christoph Ransmayr’s Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr and Marina Carr’s Phaedra Backwards

As a part of the UIP-2020-02-3695 Analysis of Systems in Crisis and of New Consciousness in 21st Century Literature installation research project, which is being carried out at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek and is financed by the Croatian Science Foundation (https://askins21.ffos.hr/english/),1 this paper focuses on two contemporary plays of Western European literature: Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr (2010), written by the Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr, and Phaedra Backwards (2011), by the Irish playwright Marina Carr. In both plays, the authors use the original myths of Odysseus and Phaedra, reimagining them in a contemporary context in order to show the universality of their experiences, but above all to comment on the society and especially the family as a system marked by crises and conflicts instead of heroic deeds. In this light, the analysis focuses on the text and context within which the state of society and the family are explored. The research is primarily based on the sociological reflections on the system, crisis, and family, drawing on the theoretical approach of the German sociological theorist Niklas Luhmann and focusing on society and social systems. In the selected plays, the family as a specific type of system is examined as well as its dynamics in relation to social changes. In addition to the examination of thematic, compositional, and genre features of the plays, the comparative analysis will reveal their differences and similarities regarding several aspects: the self-concept in context of the family as well as the causes, manifestations, and consequences of the crisis. In other words, its effect on thecharacters and their transformations will be explored.

The Experience of Conversation and Relation with a Well-Being Chabot: Between Proximity and Remoteness

The article concerns the users’ experiences of interacting with well-being chatbots. The text shows how chatbots can act as virtual companions and, to some extent, therapists for people in their daily reality. It also reflects on why individuals choose such a form of support for their well-being, concerning, among others, the stigmatization aspect of mental health problems. The article discusses and compares various dimensions of users’ interactions with three popular chatbots: Wysa, Woebot, and Replika. The text both refers to the results of research on the well-being chatbots and, analytically, engages in a dialogue with the results discussed in the form of sociological (and philosophical) reflection. The issues taken up in the paper include an in-depth reflection on the aspects of the relationship between humans and chatbots that allow users to establish an emotional bond with their virtual companions. In addition, the consideration addresses the issue of a user’s sense of alienation when interacting with a virtual companion, as well as the problem of anxieties and dilemmas people may experience therein. In the context of alienation, the article also attempts to conceptualize that theme concerning available conceptual resources.

Shoaib Malik’s “Islam and Evolution”: Sociological Reflections on the Developing Engagement of British Muslim Leadership with Science

ABSTRACT Sociological studies of Islam and science in the West have developed in the past two decades. This response is positioned in the light of one such study (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/ptr/projects/science-british-muslim-religious-leadership.aspx). It argues that Malik’s work is part of emerging transatlantic networks of learning and authority in Islam and science discourses. It suggests that Muslim leadership is now shifting in favour of informed engagement with science/religion topics, and that Malik’s book both exemplifies this shift, but also addresses an urgent need for scholarship that brings Islamic theological principles into dialogue with modern scientific topics.

The Influence of the Recitations (Qirāʼāt) on the Rulings in al-Jaṣṣās' Aḥkām al-Qurʾān: The Case of Chapter on Ṭahārah

The general subject of this study is the reflections of the recitations (Qirāʼāt) on the verses of aḥkām. The specific subject is how influential the recitations are in the verses that al-Jassās deals with under the title of Ṭahārah (Cleanliness) in his Aḥkām al-Qurʾān. This study is important in terms of the inevitability of its applicability in social life and in terms of seeing how the rulings of the three verses that al-Jassās deals with in the Ṭahārah section of his Aḥkām al-Qurʾān are interpreted differently due to the recitation. This study aims to reveal how the recitation in al-Jaṣṣās' Aḥkām change the rulings by exemplifying the verses in the chapter on Ṭahārah, and to reveal the motives of al-Jaṣṣās when he makes a choice between the two versions from a unique perspective by taking into account the traditional and sociological background. The focal point of this study is al-Jaṣṣās's Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, which has developed a unique methodology in terms of its approach and evaluation of the recitations among the Aḥkām tafsirs. While there are studies on the relationship between jurisprudence (fiqh) and Qurʾān in al-Jaṣṣās, the lack of a special study on the most famous verses on this subject, the " Ṭahārah chapter", has led us to research at this point. As a methodology, the three related verses are listed in their own order in accordance with the sequence in the Muṣḥaf. Each verse is given as it appears in the Muṣḥaf with the Hafs narration of Asim, and its meaning is presented. Other recitations and meanings of this verse are explained in the light of the information in the recitation sources. Subsequently, it is tried to reveal how the commentator (mufassir) analyzed this qiraat differences, which methods he developed, and which judgment he reached at the last point, together with the motives that pushed him to this judgment. When we see the Qurʾān as a book that contains all the authentic recitations, it is understood that it is essential to take into account the recitation differences when speaking on behalf of the Qurʾān. At the end of each verse, the verses were evaluated from the perspective of the present day, and it was concluded how applicable the provisions that emerged from recitation differences were actually applicable in life. It was seen that al-Jaṣṣās preferred the famous recitations in all three verses, but the reason that led him to this conclusion was not the theoretical classification of the recitation as ṣaḥīḥ. - shādh, but the sociological reflection of the existing traditional accumulation in the background of his mind along with the sectarian factor. By referring to the positive and negative aspects of the method, the contribution of this study to contemporary scholars in interpreting the tradition is also criticized. We have also investigated other chapters in al-Jaṣṣās' Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, such as the chapter on Ṭahārah, and concluded that there is a lack of studies on the reflections of the meaning and ruling dimensions on today's fiqh issues, social benefit and applicability to personal issues. Suggestions and wishes are made for those who will conduct academic research in this field. * This study is based on his Ph.D. dissertation titled "Reflection and Effects of Qirāʼāt on Aḥkām Tafsīrs" which is under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emrah Dindi.

We’ll see things they’ll never see: Sociological reflections on race, neurodiversity and higher education

This article offers sociological reflections on race and neurodiversity in UK higher education (UKHE). Using dialogical knowledge production and collaborative autoethnography, the authors discuss their lived experiences of navigating the politics of neurodiversity and neurotypical hegemony in UKHE as Black sociologists. The central argument explores how race and neurotypical hegemony overexposes Black neurodiverse scholars to a particular and pervasive form of double jeopardy. The authors’ reflexive accounts show how, as Black scholars, they must often negotiate the operation of race alongside the hegemonic practices of the white western academy. In this way, they grapple with racism and ableism in the context of value, meritocracy and elitism. The authors contend that drawing on the politics of neurodiversity in conjunction with Black subjectivities can generate routes into exposing and dismantling neurotypical hegemony. A key motive for discussing their own experiences as neurodivergent scholars in UKHE is that existing research and anecdotal reflections point to a pattern of general whitening of how we understand neurodiversity in academia. The authors indulge their personal, political and academic commitment to this subject as they contend that as Black neurodivergent sociologists, we’ll see things they’ll never see.

Life outside the Labor Process

Abstract This memorial essay is a personal and sociological reflection on what it was like to learn from Stanley Aronowitz, both as his student and as his friend. Close attention is paid to what many consider his best book, False Promises, and its major insight: that class consciousness forms outside the labor process — through games, play, sex, and community organizing — as much as from within it.

Philosophiegeschichtsschreibung als Sakralisierungspraxis

Abstract In this article, I would like to use the case of Rudolf Eucken to examine how the historiography of philosophy, and especially the interpretation of German Idealism, became a medium of national self-assurance. By referring to the philosophical classics of German Idealism, Eucken, at the end of the 19th century, develops a model of a publicly effective philosophy to which he ascribes the task of contributing to the recovery of unity and strength. My aim is to work out the social background and the social function of this characterisation of the history of philosophy. The thesis I would like to develop is that Eucken, in reaction to his perception of social crises and the inner-scientific questioning of the role of philosophy, attempts to establish philosophy as a fundamental element of the historical discourse and practices of the new German nation state. This historical discourse, into which philosophy attempts to inscribe itself, can be interpreted, following Durkheim’s sociological reflections on religion, as an attempt to sacralise the nation. This reveals the social function of this form of philosophical historiography: it becomes the theology of the new German nation state.

Sociological Reflections on the Covid-19 Pandemic in India: Redefining the Normal

Sociological Reflections on the Covid-19 Pandemic in India: Redefining the Normal

The Victim

While victimization is as old as human history, the notion of victimhood as currently understood is a relatively recent phenomenon. Over the last several decades, the notion of victimhood has been increasing discussed both within academia and the wider public, a trend that has intensified in recent years. In order to gain a clearer vision of this social phenomenon, the current piece follows the lead of Georg Simmel, and identifies a new Simmelian social type—the Victim. After discussing Simmel’s understanding of social types and tracing the origins of the Victim, we examine some of the characteristics of this new social type. While the Victim is best understood on a high level of abstraction—as are all social types—a richer appreciation of the emergence and nature of the Victim will help us to better understand current discussions around victimhood in both academia and the wider public. These philosophical and sociological reflections on the nature of the Victim can thus be of help for better understanding a social phenomenon of considerable importance in today’s world.

Social reality in the perspective of temporalism: In search of methodology

The article aims at linking social reality with the category of temporality in the conceptual perspective based on some modifications of modernity as culture. The author explains and applies the epistemological means of the temporal turn and presents the agent-subject interpretation of social reality in a new way. The article focuses on the potential of the temporal discourse which is poorly articulated in contemporary works but is immanently inherent in the sociological science. The survey methodology provides variables related to the past and making demands on memory and the ability to reconstruct events, and also projective questions implying the respondent’s ability to extrapolate patterns from the present to the future. The author summarizes the issues of time in her early and recent works and concludes that there is the temporal turn in the studies of social problems, social policy and social reality. The idea of integrating temporality and sociality results in the new components of the proposed analytical approach which emphasizes the agency of the scientific intelligentsia and updates the intellectual-educational and temporal content of the concept and thesaurus of social reality. The relevance and fundamental nature of the proposed approach are determined by the intersection of the temporality of the social life of individuals and groups with the sociological reflection of the fundamental categories and concepts of time in the academic discourse. Post-non-classical reality allows to conceptually explicate the temporality of inclusive-bifurcation sociality which explains institutional and microsocial problems of communities as non-linear worlds. The scientific-practical meaning of the proposed approach is that the concept of temporal social reality results in the study of modifications of value-symbolic and institutional characteristics of the discourse of the scientists’ role as agents of post-non-classical reality.

International trade agreements within the GATT-WTO paradigm: a descriptive study based on sociological reflection approach

After the end of the Second World War, the second half of the twentieth century brought in, one the one hand, the establishment of GATT provisions in 1947 and the legal texts implemented during its negotiation rounds as a regulatory framework, and on the other hand, the creation in 1995 of the WTO as the central normative entity for international trade. In this way, the states' economic opening strategy focuses on reducing rampant protectionism, usually reflected in tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers as foreign trade policy. Therefore, the GATT-WTO paradigm enhances trade flows between countries as freely as possible, contributing to economic growth and world development. Likewise, the GATT provisions endorsed the creation of many different typologies of trade agreements legitimated by its article XXIV and the Enabling Clause of the Tokyo Round. In this sense, the international trade agreements had a notable growth since the WTO establishment until the Great Recession in 2008. However, it is paradoxical that this approval from the GATT-WTO paradigm regarding the signing of these international trade agreements strengthen regionalism as the easy path, leaving out the multilateralism philosophy of the WTO, where precisely member governments try to solve the trade disputes through its legal framework but not through specific law from trade agreements. In this manner, this research carries out a descriptive study where trade agreements are marked adopting the sociological research scientific approach where a factual question is proposed to analyze the phenomenon. Hence, this paper suggests that the current legal framework in the GATT-WTO paradigm is not dynamic nowadays, pushing countries to sign international trade agreements for promoting commercial exchange and create new rules that, at the multilateral level, the GATT-WTO do not develop for political will absence and particular interests of some full members. A scenario that merely seems to undermine the WTO pushing countries to make parallel rules apart from the traditional multilateralism model giving a more prominent role to regionalism.

From criticism of protocols to criticism of the diagnostic practice. The sociological contribution to psychiatric practice in an age of mental illness epidemics

This paper discusses the role that sociological reflection can play in learning and improving knowledge in the field of mental health care. Two different positions within sociology will be discussed. The first one, taken from a constructionist perspective, interprets the role of sociology as a critical instance and highlights how the adoption of rigid formal protocols in psychiatry has hindered and endangered the autonomy and necessary discretion of clinicians at the moment of diagnosis. The second position, which takes an ethnomethodological point of view, holds instead that it is pointless to focus on formal protocols because concrete diagnostic practice consists of other procedures, not at all comparable to the official ones described by the DSM. For ethnomethodology, the contribution of sociology is not to add sociological knowledge to psychiatric knowledge, but to make the real resources and competences of clinical work explicit.

Responsible fatherhood: a sociological reflection on paternal abandonment

This article aims to reflect on responsible parenthood and the phenomenon of paternal abandonment from a sociological perspective. The existence of this phenomenon is assumed, accompanied by a social invisibility: that it exists, but is not debated. In the final considerations, it is observed that the phenomenon of paternal abandonment has worsened since modern times, but there are traces of its existence since classical Greek antiquity, also serving as an alert to the need to remove this phenomenon of invisibility social life and to encourage ways of overcoming it.